Nghe An: F1 died before being tested, hospital quarantined entire department

On May 15, Mr. Nguyen Van Long - Director of Vinh City Medical Center said that a rather unusual incident related to the Covid-19 epidemic had just occurred in the city. That was an F1 case that died before a sample could be taken for testing.

This case is Mr. Luong Quoc Tr. (88 years old, residing in Le Mao ward). Mr. Tr. is a cancer patient. On April 28, he visited Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi).

After that, when he returned to Nghe An, his children and grandchildren continued to take him to Vinh City General Hospital and Nghe An Province Oncology Hospital for treatment.

“Early in the morning of May 13, we received a document announcing that "case 3491" had just been announced by the Ministry of Health, and had visited Bach Mai Hospital on the morning of April 28. And Mr. Tr. was identified as F1 of this case when he was examined there at the same time. I called the ward and received information that he had passed away a day before and had not been buried yet,” said Mr. Long.

Before passing away, Mr. Tr. was treated at the Emergency Department - Intensive Care Unit - Nghe An Oncology Hospital. Photo: Tien Hung

Authorities immediately arrived at the funeral and requested to take samples for testing. However, the coffin was already closed and the family did not agree.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Long, because it was impossible to collect F1 samples, the health agency decided to upgrade the epidemic prevention. Accordingly, all cases in contact with Mr. Tr. since he returned from Bach Mai Hospital must be quarantined at home for 21 days and tested 3 times according to regulations.

Among the 33F2 who must be quarantined at home, in addition to family members, there are many medical staff at Vinh City General Hospital, patients and medical staff at Nghe An Oncology Hospital.

This department has been quarantined. Photo: Tien Hung

Even after receiving the information, Nghe An Oncology Hospital immediately isolated the Emergency - Intensive Care Department for 14 days, including all medical staff and patients, implementing "No one goes out, no one comes in"; taking samples of all medical staff and patients to send to Nghe An CDC for testing. The reason is that before he passed away, this old man had been treated here. Up to now, all test samples have also been negative for SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Currently, Nghe An health authorities are continuing to investigate, trace and isolate F3 cases when necessary./.